This article focuses on how the mode of preparation for exams has shifted to online test preparation and how online exams have made it easy for tutors/teachers to evaluate knowledge of the students.
The Scale of Exams in India
- India has around 300 million students who participate in the learning process of which exams are the critical part.
- This year more than 50 million students will appear for more than 400 entrance exams,50 board exams, and hundreds of university exams in India.
- More than half a year of an average student is spent in examination and test preparation and the parents and students believe that good performance in these exams has become the deciding factor of fate of many students!
- Indian Railways conducts one of the world’s largest recruitment drives for which 24 million applicants will appear in 2019
Exams are a critical part of any student’s life and the way today they are being shaped is going to change the future of knowledge evaluation. and the best online examination software is essential for the make successful exams of students.
Why did the Exam preparation ecosystem change?
Rising Internet and Smartphone Penetration and Usage
Internet and smartphone penetration in India is increasing at a fast pace.
- India’s internet user base increased by 18% in 2018.
- 65% of internet traffic comes from mobile phones.
- Smartphone users in India are estimated to grow at a CAGR of 38% in the next 4 years.
Also, there is huge growth in the increase of time spent on smartphones by students. They spend at least 30 minutes of their day on smartphones.
Evolved Education technology
- Advancement in technology :
Advancement in education technology has one of the major reasons to drive change in the educational ecosystem. With the revolution in internet and communication technology the technology leaders identified need gaps in the education sector and started developing products that would cater to the needs of the students and teachers. and technology is also helping in institute management through institute management system software in an effective way. - Cost of tech has reduced :
The cost of developing education technology has also been reduced which has helped in its widespread use of it. - Ease of Use :
Easy of using technology has also resulted in the increased utility of education technology products which in turn has resulted in driving change in the examination ecosystem.
Government Initiatives
NTA (National Testing Agency)
- National Testing Agency (NTA) which has been established as a premier, specialist, autonomous, and self-sustained testing organization is at the forefront of employing the best of methods and technology to conduct entrance examinations for admission/fellowship in higher educational institutions.
- NTA can be attributed as the driving force for motivating other educational institutes to bring in a change in the knowledge evaluation systems.
- Major examinations in the country for which crores of students appear are smoothly conducted by the NTA and they deserve applause for ushering in changes in the way exams are conducted.
GOVERNMENT-RUN TRAINING CENTERS
- Government-run Training centers are the initiatives of the government which act as fulfillment centers for various educational initiatives of which conducting online exams and admissions are major initiatives.
- Many entrance exams are conducted online and at these centers smoothly and major problems like paper leaks are avoided due to the online nature.
- Government-run training centers can be seen as major enablers of digitizing education and its aspects of it.
Market Potential
- The Indian education market is estimated to be worth 120 bn dollars and the online test preparation market is expected to have around 19-26% share in the total market by FY 2020-21. Students are already exploring online modes of preparation for their exams and let them.
Online exams: In brief
What is an online examination?
Online exams are simply examinations that are conducted over the internet with the help of a computer/laptop with an active internet connection.
What is Online test preparation?
Online Test preparation is now the preferred mode to prepare for competitive and other types of exams. It is an online mode where students can prepare for exams on mobile, desktop or laptop online.
What is a mock test?
A mock test is a model test of an actual exam that follows the exam pattern of the actual examination and is time-bound.
What is a practice test?
Practice tests are topic-based tests for students to test their knowledge on a particular subject. These tests may or may not be time-bound.
How Online mode of Exams is being used in India
Entrance Exams
There are around 400 entrance tests which are conducted in India in different faculties. Most of the entrance tests in India were conducted offline in India. There are around more than a crore students who appear for entrance exams in India. In the last decade, most of the major entrance exams have gone fully online in India. Common Admission Test (CAT) JEE Main, BITSAT, and even exams like government civil services, banking, and other competitive exams have started using online modes of conducting examinations.
University exams and Board Exams
Many Universities in India use online exams for evaluating the learning potential of students.
There are universities like Pune university that have set a fixed percentage for online evaluation of students in semester exams.
Test Preparation at Coaching Institutes
Various advantages of online test preparation have made coaching institutes and students adopt this Online mode of test preparation.
Coaching Institutes prepare and develop practice tests, and mock tests for students and students use these tests as main tools to test and evaluate their preparation.
Benefits of Online Examination:
There are plenty of advantages to implementing an online examination system at your educational institution. Let’s go through each of them:
Solves the problem of Paper leak
News of paper leaks in India is not uncommon. A few areas in India have even become infamous for the paper leaks that happen over there. In such situations, online exams are the only way out to provide a safe and secure environment for the exams to be conducted.
Cost-saving and compatible
- Online exam reduces a lot of manual work
- There is a significant reduction in the Cost of paper and labor cost
- For conducting the online examination, the cost of the exam per candidate is around Rs. 10 to Rs. 50. Meanwhile, for paper-based exams, the cost per candidate is Rs. 300 to Rs. 400.
Supervision and Quick designing question paper
The other facilities that can be integrated into the online examination are Remote Supervision and Designing a question paper. Designing a question paper for a paper-based exam is a daunting task. There are an endless number of logistical activities right from manual question selection, design of the paper, the printing of the paper, and distributing the question paper to various exam centers in a secure manner.
Detailed Performance Analysis:
- Subject Wise Analysis
- Time Management Analysis (Subject wise)
- Question wise analysis
- Analysis of Previous and Present tests
- Subject Wise (Questions Attempted) Analysis of Previous and Present tests
- Subject wise (Marks Obtained) Analysis of Previous and Present tests
- Section-wise (within the subject) Analysis of Previous and Present test
Adaptive Testing environment
The exams which have the ability to adapt to the way examinees answer give a unique help for someone conducting the likes of psychometric exams.
Challenges of Online Examinations
Requirement of the Internet, Smartphone, and Laptops
Internet users in India are estimated to reach 627 million in 2019 but there is still a good amount
of the population who has not used the internet and so this population is bound to not get the
advantage of online learning and test preparation.
There are many online exam solutions available in the market. Proctur offers a comprehensive
and innovative tool to conduct online tests, mock exams, and practice tests. Examdesk
provides an in-depth analysis of students’ performance to help tutors give appropriate feedback
to students and parents.
Examdesk: Innovative Online Exam Solution
With ExamDesk you can build and create your online exams & tests with great ease and provide your students with better feedback with basic detailed performance reports of each student.
Features of Examdesk :
Conduct Practice Test
- Give Practice Test Multiple times on Proctor’s Student Mobile App Sell test Packages
- Create packages consisting of mock tests, practice exams, and quizzes of Students who Conduct Mock Tests
- Create Mock Tests of Students on Proctur Student Application
Conduct Test Series
- Create Customized Test Series
- Access Online Test Series anytime anywhere
- Audio/video support in questions and with the passage
- Set Difficulty Level
- Create different types of Tests
- Create Online Examination
- Create Classroom Examination
Randomization
- The system randomly pulls the questions from the question pool which is based on
the defined test criteria.
Question paper input options
- Voice to text: You can input question paper content directly in the form of voice
which will be automatically converted to text - Manual Input: You can type and input your question paper content in the Examdesk
software - Upload excel: One can also input question paper content in a predefined excel sheet and upload that to input your question paper content
- Upload word doc: One can also input question paper content in a predefined excel sheet and upload that to input your question paper content
Multi-language Support
- With this feature one can have the same exam in multiple languages as well.
Detailed performance analysis
- Subject Wise Analysis
- Time Management Analysis (Subject wise)
- Question wise analysis
- Analysis of Previous and Present tests
- Subject Wise (Questions Attempted) Analysis of Previous and Present tests
- Subject wise (Marks Obtained) Analysis of Previous and Present tests
- Section-wise (within the subject) Analysis of Previous and Present test
Case Study
Case Study 1: Ashish Agarwal Classes, Kolkata,(Using Examdesk since May 2019)
Ashish Agarwal Classes is a coaching institute that conducts coaching for XIIth and BSc science which has around 100 students studying at his coaching institute.
The problem faced: In May 2019 Ashish decided to expand his coaching institute. He wanted to automate critical areas of his coaching institute one of them was exams! Offline exams were consuming a lot of his time, energy, and cost.
Solution Offered: Ashish Agarwal was sure that if we want to expand his coaching institute he would need to automate part of the coaching institute. Ashish decided to automate and conduct exams online. Using Proctur’s online exam solution which is Examdesk has reduced a lot of his manual effort and helped him save time cost and effort.
Impact:
- Able to Offload manual effort
- Automation of communication with Parents related to performance in exams of their wards
- Able to sell test series online
- Able to Provide detailed performance analysis for each student
Case Study 2: Silver Peak Global, Bengaluru,(Using Examdesk since Jan-2019)
Silver Peak Global (SPG) has been at the forefront of the global education sector and business solutions for the past decade. Silver Peak Global has a presence in 6 countries including India, Japan, Nepal, the Philippines, South Korea, and Sri Lanka.
A problem faced: To offload manual work of conducting entrance tests across different centers in India at Silver Peak Global
Solution Offered: Silver peak conducts entrance tests to shortlist candidates for offering them training in certain areas. Initially, Silver peak used to conduct pen and paper exams to shortlist candidates in different centers. After discussing with Proctur’s exam desk team they adopted the Exam desk solution and are conducting online entrance tests across 3 centers in India.
Impact
- Silver Peak is enabled to conduct entrance tests simultaneously at various centers.
- They no longer use pen-and-paper exams for shortlisting candidates
- Able to reduce a lot of paperwork, manual data entry, and manual communication with students and parents
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